Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends. The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration. Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth he's seen in more than a decade. "All it's lacking is a spark," McEntire said in the report. – Yahoo

Dominant Social Theme: A worrisome development.

Free-Market Analysis: Is McEntire awaiting a spark? The size and aggressiveness of the US military-police-industrial complex is noteworthy. If ordinary citizens ever understood the length, breadth and depth of it, questions naturally would arise, such as – why does the US federal government feel the need for such a massive array of force? Is the government involved with people who benefit from the use of its power in ways that are not clearly lawful?

Of course, many of the actions of powerful people are performed under the color of law. In order to justify these actions, legislation is required and received. But more than this, dominant social themes are promoted that work in conjunction with legislation. A law, of itself, is just a piece of paper. In order to ensure that laws are congruent with a social belief structure, society needs to be inculcated with various memes that support its laws.

This can be seen in the various dominant social themes that flood Western cultures. These themes arise from institutions set up by the monetary elite – the United Nations comes to mind – and work in conjunction with the parliamentary thrust of Western legislatures. The goal of these laws and memes? Wealth and power, of course – some would even brand it as the economic enslavement of the majority.

An obvious example of the congruence of laws and memes is to be found in the environmental movement that arose in the past century out of well-meaning writings of naturalists and philosophers. But today, environmentalism, like so many other memes, has been raised nigh unto a spiritual endeavor. By using questionable data about so-called global warming, Western governments have begun a campaign to impose Draconian rules designed to minimize human carbon production that supposedly contributes to global warming – and creates a new fiat-money trading machine in the process.

The memes being produced have grown increasingly bold – desperate, in fact – over the past two decades. Even ten years ago, the idea that sophisticated Western legislatures would float the concept that the simple act of human breathing was antithetical to Mother Earth's survival would have produced incredulousness. But today that concept is not only taken seriously, it is serving as the foundation for legislation. The result: new "green" business opportunities for those behind the legislation and more control over citizens' behavior and actions for governments as well.

But there is a complication: The Internet. In order for the monetary elite to promote necessary themes, the mechanism must be kept out of sight. A visible promotion is not a healthy one. But the Internet has revealed the mechanism of promotion clearly. One can see how environmental concern may be ginned up (certainly at the very least there are valid counterarguments). One can read data on global warming that contradicts the idea that the earth is getting hotter. One can visibly see the groups and individuals that are spinning the data and ignoring certain parts of it (inconvenient facts) while emphasizing others.

The control of the monetary elite rests on three basic supports: spiritual, temporal and informational. The spiritual element – the church – has been fading for some time. The temporal – legislative and military – is less effective without the spiritual element. Finally, and most importantly, there is the informational leg to the stool. Throughout the 20th century, the informational leg was sturdy and information that did not align itself with the goals of the monetary elite were discarded and ignored. But today all that has changed. The Internet has recalled all that was ignored. It has been busily presenting what was discarded.

And what has been the result? Deprived of a spiritual endorsement, the monetary elite has attempted to inflate dominant social themes with a breath of divinity. While the monetary elite is powerful enough to align legislation with themes, the most important element of such promotions is informational, or at least emotional. People must be surrounded by information that supports and spawns an emotional relationship that accepts and endorses the laws and the promotions that are underway. But in the 21st century, unlike the 20th century, information is readily available that not only contradicts the themes of the monetary elite but actually undermines them.

Perhaps another good example of this mechanism at work is the American healthcare debate. The American health care system is broken because it is already half-socialized and price information has been distorted. The Obama administration's solution has been to suggest that the system ought to be more fully socialized. In the 20th century when the mainstream media was more powerful, such a solution would have been presented as logical and necessary. But in the Internet-spawned era of newfound consciousness, people can avail themselves of other more rational informational choices. And they have. American citizens have obviously come to the conclusion that there are other options: do nothing at all or move toward privatization, or increased private competition across state borders, rather than public solutions.

The big question in our humble opinion is not healthcare, so much as what are the ramifications for the monetary elite in this brave, new Internet world? Deprived of the reinforcement of two legs of the stool (spiritual and informational) only one leg remains: the temporal. But what good are legislative constructs and military force without the reinforcement of information and religion? One can always pass laws and enforce them in the short term, but in the long term it is necessary to support the arguments of the state with the convictions of the heart. If the heart remains cold, then the blandishments of the state are seen as manipulations rather than solutions.

One can likely see the growth of American militia groups not necessarily from the point of view of anger and fear but within the larger context of the monetary elite's failure to control and motivate. People have always experienced hard times and lost jobs. The difference is that this time the monetary elite is facing a crisis without the critical tools of persuasion. While it has attempted to infuse dominant social themes with spirituality, this is not the same as having the authority of the Roman Catholic Church (in its heyday) supporting your agenda. While the mainstream media remains congruent with the arguments of the monetary elite, the Internet – where tens of millions of increasingly informed US citizens go for their news and information – is far less supportive and often downright antagonistic.

Of course, there is always the military option. But there is a reason for dominant social themes and for lawful manipulation of society. Create a belief structure supporting your themes and memes and you can rest easy (or easier). Impose a dominant social theme and it ceases to have any value. It is soon seen, in fact, as inimical to the social order. This is exactly the opposite of what the monetary elite is trying to accomplish with its dominant social themes and this is the reason that the monetary elite is most reluctant to use force, in our opinion. Additionally, the military's perceived honor and dedication is the last bastion of government credibility for many American citizens. Utilize military force domestically within the US and without the proper legal legitimacy and even this bedrock sentiment will be undermined. What would be left?

After Thoughts

Force is a stop-gap measure. Winning hearts and minds is of real importance. If you cannot win hearts and minds, your power and wealth are subject to recall. This is the conundrum with which the monetary elite is grappling. Deprived of two legs of the stool, how does the mechanism – successful for so long – continue to support the current shadow leadership? We don't think it can. Which is why we are fairly confident that there will be no wide-scale violent (long-term) repression in the West, why ultimately the central banking paradigm will fail, or at least change, and why private markets in money and other important matters will be resurgent in the 21st century.

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